


two halves make you whole

by Zosonils



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Art, Fluff, Illustrated, M/M, One Shot, contains art, rated teen because god forbid these characters say fuck, you can fuse with your soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 21:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15782241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zosonils/pseuds/Zosonils
Summary: Your name is Dirk Strider, and you really hope that Jake English is your soulmate.





	two halves make you whole

Your name is Dirk Strider, and you can't believe you cleaned up your workshop for this.

But hey, what the fuck, it's New Year's Eve, the one night of the year that nobody is on your dick for staying up until the sun rises. Most of your friends are over at the Lalondes' house for the evening, which is probably way classier and generally just better, but thanks to the asshole who couldn't keep his bus parked for ten more seconds, you're going to be celebrating back at your apartment instead. You had to improvise, but you put something together – your workbench has been cleared of the sheet of metal you were working with, which is now propped up against the wall, and the pizza and garlic bread you ordered is sitting in its place alongside the various drinks you were going to bring with you. Your phone is turned up as loud as you could hack it into going, playing music from underneath the window you drew the curtains away from for the first time since moving in, a viewing point for the fireworks at midnight. Dave is tapping his foot to the beat while he eats a slice of pizza, and you're taking an occasional sip from a can of orange soda and wondering how to get rid of some bugs you found in your latest code.

The doorbell rings, snapping you out of your trance. "I'll get it," you offer, putting down your drink. It's probably just a neighbour who's come to tell you to turn your music down. You prepare to speed through the whole 'sorry sir/madam/otherwise I wasn't aware yes I'll turn it down yes really thank you goodbye' exchange. Maybe it's this anticipation that makes it a surprise when you open the door and Jake fucking English of all people is smiling at you.

"Evening, Dirk!" he greets you. "It's a shame we couldn't make the Lalondes', but I'm sure we'll be able to have ourselves a right tickety-boo night over here!"

"What are you doing here?" you ask. "Aren't you supposed to be on your way to Roxy's?"

"I told you, you and Dave can't just celebrate alone! I came over to join you in the night's festivities!" he answers, as if it's the most natural fucking thing in the world.

"I thought you were joking about that...?"

"Well, I wasn't! Now, enough of your befuddled jabbering. I'm sure it'll be a pleasure to spend the night here!" he says cheerfully. Before you can insist that he gets his shit and goes to have fun with everyone else, he's entered your apartment and left you standing like a fool in your own damn house. You sigh and follow him inside, leading him into your workshop.

Your setup isn't much to write home about, but when Jake walks in, he looks like he just got twelve puppies for his birthday. "Hey, English," Dave says, waving at him from where he's finishing that pizza, in his typical fashion of not giving a single fuck about anything.

"Hello, Dave!" Jake replies. "I brought these!" he continues, putting a colossal bag of Doritos and a packet of chocolate chip cookies next to the rest of your food. You'd love to sarcastically think to yourself that there's no way you'll eat all of this, but then again, you were there on the day that Jake finished an entire family-sized bag of Sour Patch Kids in fifteen minutes and went through all five stages of grief in the next twenty. You reach for your half-full soda can just as he pulls his hand back, and your hands brush against each other for just a second. You're sure he didn't even notice, but you on the other hand feel so goddamn lucky that your sunglasses hide it when your eyes instinctively dart down to linger on your fingertips.

For a while, nobody says anything. The music manages to stop the whole situation from getting too awkward, but there's no way you can just stand here eating Doritos for another two and a half hours. The anime opening theme you were listening to fades out, and after the momentary silence between songs, you hear [soft notes on a piano that are quickly joined by a powerful electric guitar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nhgZbzaFw8). Jake lights up like he just learned that all twelve of his birthday puppies came with accompanying kittens and puts down his half-finished garlic bread. "Now this is a song I can really bust a move to!" he cheers, and before you realise what he's doing, he grabs you by the arm and pulls you into the empty space between your bench and the wall. You barely have time to put your pizza down before he's dragged you to the middle of the room.

"Jake, what are you doing?" you ask. He answers by interlocking his fingers with yours and trying to get you to move to the beat. Dave laughs at you and takes a swig of his Pepsi. Smug little shit. Well, whatever. It's not every day you get the chance to dance with Jake, so you may as well play along. You pretend to give a long, frustrated sigh and act like your rhythmic shoulder movement is reluctant. Jake matches his movements with yours, until you're both dancing in sync. He spins you around with a pretty ungraceful hip motion; you respond by twirling him under your arm. The surprised look on his face is too much, and you can't stop yourself from laughing. At first he just stares at you, but he almost immediately breaks out into the adorable chuckle that you most certainly never stay up until one in the morning thinking about. You both move your feet in unison, stepping back and forth (mostly) in time with the music and probably pissing your downstairs neighbours off.

You're still laughing as you pick him up and whirl in a circle, his scream of surprise doing nothing to dull the smile on his face. It isn't like you to be this excited about, well, anything, but goddamnit, a man's allowed to have a good time every once in a while. Dancing with Jake feels right somehow, like you were supposed to be synchronised from the very beginning. You feel warm and fuzzy inside, the happiest you've been in ages. Something about being with him just does that to you. He puts his hands on your shoulders as his feet reach the ground again, and you're smiling so hard that your eyes close as you wrap your arms around him in what seems to be transitioning from a dance into a hug. And suddenly the warm feeling inside is burning hot, and as you both swing around each other once more you realise just how much you want to never let go. But you have to end in style somehow, so you go for a pose of some sort. You try to spin him out and finish dynamically as the guitar solo plays on in the background and the sound of your laughs merges together.

You don't realise that you somehow left the ground until you land back on it suddenly. You throw out your arms to steady yourself, your eyes wide open again. That's weird, you don't remember your field of vision being this big. Maybe you're just used to focusing on a rectangular screen. You look up and squint a little. Did the lights in here get brighter? No, if anything they've dimmed. Have they? You're not sure. Maybe Dave knows? You look over to him, and he's staring at you like you just stepped on his bloody hamster. He very slowly reaches out his hand and pauses the music midbeat. "Dave? Why do you..." you start, but the sentence trails off when you realise how strange your voice is. He responds by dropping his Pepsi in shock. You stand up straight, a little confused. And where'd Jake go? No, where did Dirk go? You're Dirk, aren't you? You don't think you're Dirk... wait just one fucking second.

_Jake?_

_Dirk?_

You extend one hand slowly and look at it. It's a different shade than what you're used to seeing on yourself, like a combination of you and... you. You turn around very, very slowly to face the metal sheet behind you, and four eyes in vivid green and brilliant orange are staring back at you from behind a translucent pair of sunglasses and a floppy but perfectly shaped fringe that's sandy blonde in some places and dark brown in others. The image is grey and distorted by the metal, but there's no way it can be anything but reality.

"What in the blazing fuck," you manage to say, and suddenly there's a flash of light and you fall flat on your face in the least elegant fashion possible. You sit up, your shades slipping halfway off your nose in the process. You slide them up to rest on top of your head, barely registering the action. You look around, disoriented by the sudden decrease in your field of vision and from taking a floor to the face. Dave is still staring at you in total shock, and Jake is struggling to stand up while looking just as confused as you are. You get to your feet, rubbing your eyes. "What the fuck just..." you mumble, not even bothering to finish the sentence.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," Jake splutters, like he's a broken record or a buffering video. He turns to look at you, and the contact with your real eyes seems to snap him out of it. You can't tell if he's excited, or upset, or something in between. "Dirk, was that-"

"Did we fuse?!" you shout before you can stop yourself. "Jake, that means..."

"...It means we're soulmates!" he finishes, and you can see the stars in his eyes. For a moment, the only sound is Dave swearing as he finally remembers his spilled drink. Then Jake literally screams with excitement, flinging his arms around you and squeezing you in a rib-cracking hug. You smile despite the slight pain, returning his embrace with all the strength in your body. And even though it isn't midnight yet, you feel his lips against yours for just a fraction of a second before suddenly there's that burning hot fuzziness again, and the next thing you know your arms are wrapped around your own body and you're both laughing in the same voice because you're finally, truly together, and you were always supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> [small scream, followed by thoughtful silence and then much louder scream]  
> this is something i wrote a while ago, but after debating it for a while, i decided to actually post it online instead of leaving it on my computer to slowly but surely be forgotten! it's just a quick little thing that probably could've been better, but i hope that you lovely readers like it for what it is! i especially liked drawing the art - a higher-resolution version is up on my tumblr account for anybody interested!  
> thank you for reading! <>


End file.
